Paypal vs. Skullgirls

A recent
Indiegogo campaign raised over $800K for DLC for Skullgirls, Lab Zero
Games' fighting game that's out on consoles and coming to Windows this summer.
One of the twists here was allowing contributors to vote for new characters to
include in the DLC, which lead to a complication, as
NeoGAF has word from Lab Zero's CEO that he could not make his payroll
payments because PayPal was withholding funds.
EventHubs (thanks
GamesBeat) notes that this was due to fear that the voting part of this
could backfire and those unhappy with the outcome would rescind their donations:
"Basically, they are terrified of chargebacks. If we spend all the money and
don't deliver and everyone chargebacks, Paypal is concerned they will be on the
line for it. So they are effectively treating it as a loan. I mean, the guy
flat-out said, 'Until the threat of chargebacks has passed, Paypal is
effectively financing your development'." PayPal has since released most of the
funds, but is hanging onto $35K in walking around money just in case they have
to make good on some paybacks. Thanks
Develop.